Make a multi-zone audio setup with Creative’s newest products

Sonos may have trouble on its hands if Creative’s newest products, the Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Notebook and the Creative Wireless Receiver work as promised. The X-Fi Notebook is an ExpressCard that fits into your laptop. Well, some of it does — there is a rather large piece that juts out of your laptop.

Creative’s X-Fi line claims to improve audio quality using algorithms. I have yet to test these claims. Whether the X-Fi Notebook improves the audio or just sends out your lousy lossy mp3s, the cool thing is that it can wirelessly send your audio out to up to four Wireless Receivers. You could create a multi-zone set-up using Creative’s latest offerings. The Receivers are just that – you will need to hook them up to powered speakers to listen to audio.

The X-Fi Notebook has some hefty requirements. It will eat up 600MB of your hard drive, needs at least a 1.66 GHz Intel Pentium M processor or higher and Windows XP SP2 or higher. It looks like Mac and Linux users are left out in the cold (as well as those PC users who don’t have ExpressCard slots). The card can also pump out virtual surround sound to a pair of stereo headphones or speakers.

The Wireless Receiver and X-Fi card do not need a WiFi network to operate and Creative claims that they have a 100-ft range. The X-Fi Notebook costs $89.99 and the Wireless Receiver costs $69.99. You could build a decent multi-room Sonos-like experience on the cheap with these things. The X-Fi Notebook is out now and the Wireless Receiver will be out later this month.

Read [Creative Press Release]